Romans 6

This has to be one of the most difficult chapters to understand, let alone discuss. Yet, it is extremely important because it applies to how we are to live our Christian lives.

Chapter 5 = salvation; chapter 6 = walk.

Up to now, Romans has been about what God has done for sinful man, and how all is received by grace, through faith, without works. Paul has not said how this applies to everyday life, nor has Paul addressed a very practical and important question - if I sin, do I then lose my salvation, and, if I do, can I get my salvation back? He has also not addressed how I can keep from doing what I was doing in the past - what came naturally, what everyone else was doing.

In this chapter, Paul gives us four steps designed to help us with practical Christian walk:

1. We must "know" certain facts about our union with Christ, specifically that sin no longer possesses the dominating power over the believer that it has over the unbeliever (vv. 3- 10).
2. We must "reckon" (believe) these facts to be true of us personally (v. 11).
3. We must "present" ourselves to God in dedication as His slaves to perform righteousness (vv. 12-14).
4. We must "obey" God (vv. 15-23). If we do not, we will find ourselves falling back under the domination of sin in our lives and becoming its slaves once again.

Chapter 6 begins with a logical question, raised by the statement in 5:20, as people sinned more and more, God's wonderful kindness became more abundant. If grace abounds where sin abounds, then why not abound in sin that we may enjoy more grace? Did not Paul say,  you are no longer subject to the law ... Instead, you are free by God's grace." (5:14).

Here is the great objection to justification by grace through faith apart from works of the law. It seems to open the door to rampant sinning. In fact, it seems to invite more sinning because if grace is God's act to forgive and accept sinners on the basis of Christ's righteousness, not ours, then would not that grace shine all the brighter if we kept on sinning? The more sin there is, the more forgiveness there is. And the more sinning there is, the greater must be the righteousness of Christ to compensate for it. So doesn't Paul's radical teaching on justification open the door to careless living and indifference to holiness? That is the question Romans 6-8 is meant to answer.

(1) *WELL THEN, should we *KEEP ON sinning so that God can show us more and more kindness and forgiveness?

• *Well Then brings back to chapter 5:18-21:
  • Paul ended chapter five by reminding us that the purpose of the law was to bring a sense of condemnation and an awareness of guilt. It points its finger to all of humanity and says you failed. You have sinned. You stand in the need of God's grace: Romans 5:18-21: Yes, Adam's one sin brought condemnation upon everyone, but Christ's one act of righteousness makes all people right in God's sight and gives them life. Because one person disobeyed God, many people became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many people will be made right in God's sight. God's law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God's wonderful kindness became more abundant. So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God's wonderful kindness rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
• *keep on sinning:
  • Some believers may believe that it doesn’t matter what kind of life a Christian lives.
  • Philips paraphrase: "shall we sin to our heart's content and see how far we can exploit the grace of God"?
• Cheap grace? Grace is never cheap. It is the most priceless gift God could give to mankind. The very thought that all of your sins are wiped away, cleansed, forgiven forever is immense. You can hear the legalist arguing with Paul: "Once saved always saved leads to lawlessness. You preachers of salvation by grace through faith encourage sinful behavior with that kind of teaching." Sad to say, there will be some who will take advantage of it and abuse it. That is always the risk of preaching salvation by grace without discussing practical consequences and loss of reward and being ashamed.

(2) Of course not! Since we HAVE DIED to sin, how can we continue to live in it?

• It is PAST TENSE, a once and for all death. It is death in a judicial sense. We died to sin when we put our faith in Christ as our personal Savior. Only in Russia can a dead man be tried (as is going on right now with the whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky) - the Roman church did it too to Spanish Jews so the church could confiscate the dead Jew's inheritance!
• It refers to something that has already happened, not to something that needs to happen. Paul could have penned a present or future tense verb. He also could have made use of an imperative or an exhortation. Instead, he chose a simple past tense— “died to sin.” It is a past event, an accomplished fact. Paul is making the point that what happened to Jesus happened to us! So, I ask you, “Who are you?” You are a man or woman who has died to sin! The moment you believed in Christ, you died to sin. But please notice, Paul does not say that sin is dead to you; he only says that you died to sin. This does not mean that Christians cannot continue in sin. It means that Christians should not continue in sin and don't have to. It is not impossible to continue in sin; it is unthinkable to continue in sin.
• For us to get wrapped up in immorality, greed, gossip, and bitterness is about as logical as Lazarus (Jesus’ friend in John 11) choosing to clothe himself again with those foul-smelling grave clothes. We can do it, but why would we ever want to? Anyone who says, “Now that I’m saved, I’m free to sin” has totally misunderstood his or her new identity in Christ.
• Paul is using the rhetorical question in Romans 6:2. He is not expecting an answer; he is making a statement. There is no answer to his how question. We can't live in sin if we died to it. That is his statement. That is his answer to the objection.
• Notice that what Paul denies is not that you can never commit a sin, but that you cannot "live in it." "Living in it" corresponds to the question in verse 1: "should we *keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more kindness and forgiveness?" The idea in these two phrases, "keep on" (verse 1) and "live in" (verse 2) is that when we have become united with Christ in his death, we cannot go on with an unchanged pattern of sin in our lives.
• Think of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-24). When the son was at home he wanted his freedom, so he left home to find himself, to be free. But his rebellion only led him into deeper slavery. He was a slave of wrong desires, wrong deeds and literally became a slave who took care of pigs. He wanted to find himself and he lost himself in the process. What he thought was freedom turned out to be slavery. While he was wasting away his inheritance, did he cease to be his father's son? While he was wallowing with the pigs, had he lost his position as his father's son? When he finally returned because he was hungry and miserable because of his sin, was he welcomed back as a slave (as he'd expected) or as a son - as a son (his position)! But, what of the inheritance (his reward)? IT WAS GONE! Butt, was only when he came home and yielded to his father that he found true freedom and love.

(3) Or have you forgotten that when we became Christians and were baptized to become one with Christ Jesus, we died with him?

• King James Version: Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized INTO Jesus Christ were baptized INTO his death?
• The word "baptize" (baptizo) primarily means to "identify with", to "dip," "to plunge," "to immerse." It was a word that was used to describe the fuller who dyed his wool in the dye vat.
• 1 Corinthians 12:13: Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized INTO Christ's body by one Spirit, and we have all received the same Spirit.
• When the Holy Spirit baptized us, we were identified with Jesus Christ in His death, burial, resurrection, ascension and glorification. An intimate relationship or union was formed with Christ. We became identified with Him.
• One of the best pictures of identification is found in the Old Testament on the Day of Atonement. The High Priest killed a goat and offered him as a sin offering. Then he took another goat that is called the scapegoat. Aaron laid both his hands on the head of the live goat and confessed all the iniquities of the children of Israel. The idea is all their sins were identified with the live goat. The sin bearer has identified himself with the sins of the people. He was then led out into the wilderness bearing the sin of the people. The goat was led out to die for the sins of the people of Israel.
• when Jesus died, you died. When Jesus was buried, you were buried. And when Jesus rose from the dead, you rose from the dead. God took what happened to Christ 2000 years ago, brought it forward, and applied it to your experience when you got saved. This is the principle of identification or “baptism.”

(4) FOR we DIED and were BURIED with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live *new lives.

• Paul is talking here of baptism into death, not into water.
• God included us in the death of Christ before we were even born.
• Paul uses many sun (with) compounds (e.g., three in Ephesians 2:5-6).
  1. sun + thapto = co-buried, verse 4; Colossians 2:12.
  2. sun + phuo = co-united with him, verse 5
  3. sun + stauroo = co-crucified, verse 6; Galatians 2:20
  4. sun + zao = co-exist, verse 8; 2 Timothy 2:11 (also has co-died and co-reign)
• *new: The word translated “new” (kainotes) means “extraordinary, astonishing, that which is supernatural. As a Christian, you’re not called to be ordinary; you’re called to be extraordinary because of who your God is!

(5) SINCE we have been *united with him in his death, we will also be raised as he was.

• *united: This is the only place in the New Testament where this word “united” (sumphutos) is used. It means “to grow together.” The Christian is “grown or fused together” with the likeness of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Scholars argue whether this is a reference to a present spiritual resurrection or our future bodily resurrection. It is not either/or; it is both. Our resurrection life in the present ought to anticipate our future bodily resurrection. It is a linear progression. You must know who you are in Christ and let His power enable you to live a resurrected life in the here and now and then and there.
• Our identity changed when we came to Christ. When we believed on Christ as our savior and received eternal life we were dipped into His death and resurrection. His death to sin became our death to sin; His burial became our burial; His resurrection became our resurrection. We have a whole new identity. No longer are we identified with Adam's race. We are now identified with Christ and His family.
  • 2 Corinthians 5:17: What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun!
• When Jesus died, we died together with Him. When Christ rose from the dead, we rose with Him. When Christ ascended to heaven we ascended with Him and are now seated with Him in the heavenly places. Our identification with Christ includes the crucifixion with Him, burial with Him and our resurrection, ascension and glorification with Christ. Our identification with Christ is so complete that God reckons us as having experienced co-crucifixion, co-burial, co-resurrection, co-ascension and co-glorification. This is the way God sees us - Ephesians 2:5-6. Then should we not see ourselves in the same manner?
  • Ephesians 2:5-6: that even while we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God's special favor that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ, and we are seated with him in the heavenly realms -- all because we are one with Christ Jesus.

(6) Our *old sinful selves **were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its ***power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin.

• *old sinful selves: What was crucified with Christ? Literally, "the old man", the "old self" was crucified and buried. We were crucified together.
• **were crucified with him: (SUNestauroµtheµ). This death took place when "we died to sin."
• ***power: The power of sin has been broken in those who believe because their "old sinful selves" (literally, "old man") - that from Adam - was crucified and put to death with Christ. We no longer have to sin, though we still can by choice.

(7) FOR when we died with Christ we were *set FREE from the power of sin.

• *set free:
• The words translated “set free” (dikaioo) here is the same word translated “justified” or "made righteous" throughout Romans. In this context, though, the word means even more than “set free.” It is a legal word that could be literally translated “righteously released.” You no longer have to sin. Once you were shackled to sin, but now you’ve been set free! Jesus said it best: “So if the Son sets you free, you will indeed be free.” (John 8:36). You CAN live a radically new life - or, you can keep on living your own way and continue to obey the orders of a commander who is dead.
• We have a new standing (position) before God. He has pronounced us "Acquitted!" "Set Free!" "Forgiven!" Let us never forget it is because Jesus Christ died in our place on the cross as our substitute. The blood of Jesus cleanses us of every sin. Because of His death, you have been set free!
• The freedom we have in Christ is not a freedom to do anything we want to do, but to be everything God wants us to be. We are free to live the Christian life.
• Galatians 5:1, 13: So Christ has really set us FREE. Now make sure that you stay free, and don't get tied up again in slavery to the law. ...  For you have been called to live in freedom -- not freedom to satisfy your sinful nature, but freedom to serve one another in love.
• Charles Hodge well said, "The believer can not continue to serve sin for he who has died (with Christ) is justified, and therefore free from sin, free from its dominion. This is the great evangelical truth which underlies the apostle's whole doctrine of sanctification. The natural reason assumes that acceptance with a holy and just God must be founded on character, that men must be holy in order to be justified. The gospel reverses this, and teaches that God accepts the ungodly; that we must be justified in order to become holy."
• The power of sin nature over us was broken when we died with Christ. It was not eliminated. It does not make us incapable of sinning. However, it does set us free from mandatory obedience to sin nature as a slave.
• • Ephesians 4:22-32: throw off your old evil nature and your former way of life, which is rotten through and through, full of lust and deception. Instead, there must be a spiritual renewal of your thoughts and attitudes. You must display a new nature because you are a new person, created in God's likeness -- righteous, holy, and true. So put away all falsehood and "tell your neighbor the truth" because we belong to each other. And "don't sin by letting anger gain control over you." Don't let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a mighty foothold to the Devil. If you are a thief, stop stealing. Begin using your hands for honest work, and then give generously to others in need. Don't use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them. And do not bring sorrow to God's Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he is the one who has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of malicious behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.

(8) And SINCE we died with Christ, we know we will also share his new life.

•  Paul wrote, "Christ . . . is our life" (Colossians 3:4). Jesus told His disciples, "Abide in Me, and I in you . . . I am the vine, you are the branches" (John 15:5ff).
• Paul tells us in Romans 8:29 that God's goal for His believers is the conformity of our character to the likeness of Christ. Everything that God does in our lives happens to focus on that one supreme purpose. God has selected before hand the goal that everyone who believes on Christ will be conformed to His likeness. God's primary concern is our character, functioning the way He intended us to function, i.e. like Christ. He will not give up on that goal. He will keep at it until the day we stand before Him.

(9) We are sure of this because Christ rose from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him.

• In verse nine, death is pictured as master and lord. Since Christ has been raised from the dead, and will never die again, death no longer is master over Him. Death has been conquered. Christ is the Lord over death.
• Death could not hold Jesus Christ, our representative. It cannot hold the believer either. Furthermore neither He nor we will die a second time.

(10) He died once to defeat sin, and now he lives for the glory of God.

• What was that sin He died to? Christ never had a personal experience with sin. He knew no sin. Whose sin? My sin! "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). He paid the penalty for my sin (verse 7). He died for ME & YOU.
• We have been set free, and are no longer slaves to sin. We are free to live the Christian life. As far a God is concerned, we are already on the resurrection side of the grave!
• Christ died once and only once, not once upon a time. It was a definite act at a point and place and time in history. It never had to be repeated. He is alive, never to die again. Moreover, we are in Christ. This is the only way to live the Christian life. Paul's whole argument revolves around our intimate living relationship with Christ.

(11) SO you should *consider yourselves **dead to sin and able to live for the glory of God through Christ Jesus.

• *consider yourselves (logizomai):
• The word logizomai is translated "reckon" (KJV) "count on" (NIV) "consider" (NLT). Paul says reckon on your position in Christ (6:11). "Even so consider (reckon, count on) yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus." The present imperative could mean "do this continually," or "continue doing this." The word "reckon" means to calculate, to take into account, to figure, to count on, consider the fact. Be constantly counting upon the fact that you are dead to sin, and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
• logizomai is the same word used in Genesis 15:6 when God reckoned Abraham righteous.
• Reckoning sin dead in our lives is the beginning of experiencing God’s power to make sin dead and Christ’s life within me REAL.
• What sin are you going to reckon dead today? Consider, count it dead from today on, it has no power to rule your life. Trusting not on your feelings but on faith that He will help you and make this real. Paul’s first instruction (Know) focuses on our Mind. His second instruction (reckon) focuses on our Hearts. His third instruction (Yield) focuses on our Will.
• **dead to sin means dead to the pervasive love for and ruling power of sin. Christians must realize that the mastery of sin has been broken in their lives.

(12) Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to its lustful desires.

(13) Do not let any part of your *body become a tool of wickedness, to be used for sinning. Instead, give yourselves COMPLETELY to God since you have been given new life. And use your whole body as a tool to do what is right for the glory of God.

• *body: 1 Corinthians 6:19-20: Or don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.
• You will never be dead to the temptation to sin, it’s always there.

(14) Sin is no longer your master, for you are no longer subject to the law, which enslaves you to sin. Instead, you are FREE by God's grace.

• Giving in to sin results in people increasingly becoming obedient slaves to sin.

(15) *SO since God's grace has set us FREE from the law, does this mean we can go on sinning? Of course not!

• *SO: Paul now takes another look at the question posed in the first verse (should we keep on sinning?).
• The Apostle calls us to a wholehearted and total commitment to Christ. "Do not keep on presenting your members to sin . . . but once for all present yourselves to God."
• Paul stresses a new creation, a new relationship with God even though he is not yet perfect. It is progressive spiritual growth in the likeness of Christ. Paul still has to deal with sin because he is still a sinner.
• Do not make the grace of God an excuse for sinning. Grace can never lead to license.
• In spite of all that Christ has done for us it is possible for us to go back into our bondage to sin. But it is a choice we make. We may choose to become entangled to sin. It is not because we haven't been set free. It is not because the sin nature hasn't been broken. It is simply because we do not reckon ourselves to have been crucified with Christ. We do not count upon the fact that sin no longer has authority over us. When we choose to sin we become servants of sin. I don't have to sin because I have been set free. God has set us free to live the Christian life. This is what God has done in His grace for us.
• If a man habitually sins, he is still sin’s servant. And the end is death. By his deliberate acts he evidences the fact that he does not know the Lord, that he has never been crucified, buried, raised with Him. Every true child of God will take the road that leads to the confession of sin and to the forsaking of sin when that road is pointed out to him. Of course, he may sin and be forced to exclaim, “O wretched man that I am!” But every true believer will want to serve his new Master; otherwise, he would only prove himself to be sin’s servant still. A man in Christ has a new nature; he wants to please his new Master. Therefore, if a professing Christian is constantly falling into sin and has no conscience about it, he gives evidence that he has never been born again.

(16) Don't you realize that whatever you choose to obey becomes your master? You can choose sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God and receive his approval.

•  The basic truth is: ultimately there are only 2 masters = we can choose to obey sin or the Lord. When we yield (surrender, give in) to our sin nature, we are not simply sinning but we are developing sinful habits. When we obey sin we get enslaved to a lifestyle that leads to death. Not a loss of our salvation, but alienation from God. We lose our fellowship with Him. We lose our joy, peace, spiritual growth, our clear conscience. It leads to more sin unless we turn to God in genuine repentance, confess, then He forgives and restores and helps. If we choose to obey God, submit to Him, develop habits of holiness, those will lead to purity in our lives.
• We still have free will. We still have our old sin nature, it has been rendered inoperative by the cross but it is still there as long as we are alive on planet earth. It no longer has authority over us in that we can overcome but its potential is there until we are with the Lord.
• We are slaves to whatever controls our lives. That’s the bad news. Here’s the good news: As believers, we get to choose our master! An unbeliever has no choice of masters. He is a slave to his old self, and therefore, a slave to Satan. As hard as he may try to break free, the chains of sin keep yanking him back. He can never break free. He is Satan’s indentured servant. But a Christian has been liberated to serve a new Master. We can opt for “obedience resulting in righteousness.”

(17) Thank God! ONCE you WERE slaves of sin, BUT NOW you have obeyed with all your heart the new teaching God has given you.

(18) NOW you are FREE from sin, your old master, and you have become slaves to your new master, righteousness.

(19) I speak this way, using the illustration of slaves and masters, because it is easy to understand. Before, you let yourselves be slaves of impurity and lawlessness. Now you must choose to be slaves of righteousness so that you will become holy.

(20) In those days, when you were slaves of sin, you weren't concerned with doing what was right.

(21) And what was the result? It was not good, since now you are ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom.

(22) BUT NOW you are FREE from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life.

• It is not possible to live the Christian life without union with Christ. Every believer is in Christ. Live your life so close to Christ that know that you are in Him.

(23) FOR the *wages of sin is DEATH, but the FREE gift of God is eternal LIFE through Christ Jesus our Lord.

• *wages: Paul uses an interesting word for “wages” (opsonion). The word he uses refers to the daily food payment a Roman soldier would receive.

Next time we shall study chapter seven, which shows that in our standing before God we are also dead to the law, and that our state is in the flesh. Then later, we shall see from chapter eight that our life is in the Holy Spirit.

NOTES:

• Unless otherwise noted, the scripture version used is the New Living Translation, copyright 1996, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois.
• Disclaimer: Source material for this study has been gleaned from many different sources. I have attempted to acknowledge these sources at romansoverview.blogspot.com/2012/12/romans-references.html